February 16/06 9:59 am - UCI & Grand Tour Feud Continues

Posted by Editor on 02/16/06

UCI Spurns Trophée des Trois Grand ToursCourtesy UCI

The UCI and the organizers of the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana) have been battling over the past two years over the position of the Grand Tours within the ProTour - the Grand Tours do not want to submit to the UCI and come under the jurisdiction of the ProTour.

The Grand Tours responded with the announcement of the Trophée des Trois Grand Tours, which offered prize money for participation in all three events (and left the door open for non-ProTour teams to gain entry to their events, potentially at the expense of ProTour squads).

The UCI has now fired back, with the announcement that they will not support it (nor authorize it). The text of the UCI statement is below:

The UCI ProTour Council (UPTC) has attentively examined the proposal from ASO, RCS and Unipublic, aiming to create a Trophée des Trois Grands Tours.

The UPTC has noted that this project does not respect the principles of the road cycling reform as introduced by the UCI. In particular, this project lies on a financial approach which is counter-productive, and which would harm the visibility of the cycling calendar, demonstrating moreover, a lack of responsibility towards cycling as a whole.

On the basis of these elements, the UPTC has therefore unanimously decided not to support this project.

According to this opinion, and in accordance with article 1.2.026 of the UCI cycling regulations, the UCI does not consequently authorise the organisation of a Trophée des Trois Grands Tours.

The UCI would like to remind that within the frame of the 2006 UCI ProTour, the position of ASO, RCS and Unipublic will be the same as in 2005:

* registration of events on the 2006 UCI ProTour calendar* mandatory participation for the 20 UCI ProTeams to all events of the UCI ProTour* attribution of UCI ProTour points in accordance with the point scale as foreseen by the rules.